The wireless industry is experiencing ever increasing growth in data and service traffic. Smart phones and data devices are demanding more and more from wireless networks. To off-load the traffic in dense populated areas and increase indoor coverage, small cells have become a feasible solution. Namely, heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are now being developed wherein cells of smaller footprint size are embedded within the coverage area of larger macro cells or at least partially overlapped by the larger macro cells, primarily to provide increased capacity in targeted areas of data traffic concentration. Such heterogeneous networks try to exploit the spatial variations in user (and traffic) distribution to efficiently increase the overall capacity of the wireless network. Those smaller-sized cells are typically referred to as small cells in contrast to the larger and more conventional macro cells.
Also, wireless operators are using multiple technologies because of reasons such as merger, technology advancement, legacy customer retention, new spectrum availability, etc. The small cells used therefore will be a combination of small cells operating according to different technologies or standards, such as WCDMA, LTE, etc. Currently there is no standard way to share information between co-located small cells of different technologies, even if they are inside the same physical enclosure, or of sharing information between a co-located small cell and a macro cell of different technologies. Currently, information sharing with small cell elements (e.g., base stations) traverses through the core network of each technology. This causes several issues and problems, such as delay, increased network load, increased cost, and bad user experience.